There are a lot of shows on TV that cater to overt testosterone and just drip with manliness. Most of these shows come across as overly cheesy and more than just a little hard to swallow. If you saw a promo for Sons Of Anarchy, you'd probably immediately assume it was just another cheesy man-show. You would be mistaken.
I watched the entirety of the first season of SOA from my computer (in a slick media share set up between my computer and my xbox 360 so I could watch the episodes on my tv) in two sittings. I hadn't planned on it after I watched the first 5 episodes because although the show was interesting and entertaining, it hadn't really grabbed me. The next day, I decided to go ahead and watch another episode. Which turned into another, then another, until finally, after 6 hours, I had watched the rest of the first season. Blown away is a mild way to put my state after it was over.
I know a lot of shows really try to push the envelope of what you can do on television, especially cable, but the first season of SOA really felt to me like they did things I hadn't seen (I watch a lot of TV) and none of it felt forced with an immense and shocking impact.
Three episodes of the second season have aired so far, the newest episode just a few hours ago, and I've taken time to let them sink in. Well, maybe not the third episode, but I think I'm getting where the show is going. And I have to say that thought I still really enjoy the lives of the Sons of Anarchy MC, I'm a little disappointed. The way the first season ended, I really believed the next season would focus entirely on the tension and eventual break up of the club as Clay Morrow, the club's president, and Jax Teller, the show's protagonist and club VP, dealt with the fall out of the accidental death of club member, and all around good guy, Opie's wife.
Instead, the show is putting that schism a little in the background as the SOA have to deal with a White Power group that tries to take the Sons out of their little home town. Now, don't get me wrong, White Power is consistently a great villain, but they're always one-dimensional. They're always bad guys. I mean, the audience can't identify (or shouldn't identify) with guys whose modus operandi is hating and plotting to kill people based entirely on their skin color, no matter how great people they seem to be. So putting the club schism on the backburner instead of running headlong into an all out club civil war with the momentum they created at the end of last season seems to me to be a cop out, probably an attempt to give more viewers a good jumping on point. And according to the Nielson ratings for the season premiere, "Albification", it paid off to the tune of twice the total viewers than the most watched episode of season 1. Don't get me wrong, I get the approach and I hope it pays off for the show, but I'm annoyed to have to sit through 5-6 episodes of scene building before the storyline really kicks into gear. I enjoyed the ATF as the villains last year because both sides had to skirt certain issues as they positioned themselves for the other party's next moves but that just isn't gonna happen this time around since both sides can break laws in any way they want.
Despite my grousing over the new villains of the series (and it is nice to see Henry Rollins get some serious acting work because the dude can pull of menacing in a big way,) I'm really enjoying watching Jax build the new alliances that will play out when he decides to take the Sons away from Clay. It's hard to see who will side with him other than Piney and Half-Sack, who already know what Clay did to Opie. Part of me thinks Bobby might side with Jax because he knows what Clay did too, but I find that hard to imagine because Bobby seemed so gung-ho about the Sons being an outlaw club last season.
All in all, Sons Of Anarchy is still one of my favorite shows and I look forward to it every week. If you've never seen it, head over to Hulu.com and catch up on the second season. Then watch the new episodes every Tuesday at 10pm on FX.
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